by J. T. Hardy
"Then we can find Grace's dad and Anita Rosenberg," said Libby. "Ivy Helgarson can go home to her husband and little boy."
Cavanaugh sighed.
"Nate, if you still want to help us, help us," I said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Who do you think has a better chance of saving them, us or Dandridge?"
He glanced down the hall toward Dandridge's office. The door was shut, and I pictured the young coot muttering behind his desk, replaying the argument in his head. He seemed like the type.
"What do you need? Besides the security footage."
"Holy water and lots of it."
He smiled wryly. "That part I can help with."
Libby tipped her head toward the front door. "The big guns are in the trunk."
"Guns?"
"You'll see."
Damp air greeted us as we left the church, chillier than Arizona in February ought to be. Colder than natural weather. The tickle of spiders danced across my skin.
I stopped on the steps and raised a hand. Libby halted, her own hand moving to the small of her back. Cavanaugh took another few steps and stopped.
"What is it?" he said.
"Wood smoke and spiders. They're here."
Libby drew her water pistol. It shouldn't have looked dangerous, but it did. "Where?"
"I don't know, I just feel them."
Cavanaugh gave me a look, but just scanned the parking lot, his gaze darting haphazardly. "What am I looking for?"
"Him."
Kokabiel stood under the overhanging branches of a clump of trees, dressed in a simple button-down and khaki pants. His pale skin glowed, and his white hair flowed around him in the breeze. He really was beautiful to behold, but nothing that strange should dress that ordinary.
Cavanaugh took a step forward as if drawn to him. "That's Kokabiel?" he whispered, voice tight. I grabbed his arm and tugged him back.
"In the flesh."
Libby shifted position and covered our backs. "Think he's alone?"
"No." His minions had to be nearby. Rocky, Rude Dude. Maybe more if he had them. "He's staying off holy ground I see."
"And covering the exits. Smart money says he has someone watching the rear."
"How did he even know I was here?"
She shrugged. "If he has human minions in the blood banks, he could have them anywhere. One could have waited on us at breakfast."
Comforting thought.
"That's an angel?" Cavanaugh ran a hand through his hair, his face pale. "He's so beautiful."
"They're handsome sons of bitches."
"He's smiling at us." Cavanaugh smiled back, an awed light in his eyes.
Which creeped me out. I elbowed him in the side. "Hey! Focus."
I didn't like any of this. Kokabiel hadn't moved, hadn't said a word, hadn't demanded my blood. He stood under the tree, his pale hair blowing around his shoulders like a supermodel on a runway, grinning at me. Daring me to run? Fight?
"Grab the gear and head back inside," I said, stomach twisting. "We're not going anywhere yet."
"In here." Cavanaugh ducked into the first office and quietly shut the door. Libby took position by the window.
"Rule number one," I began, finger raised. "Don't tell Dandridge Kokabiel's out there." The priest was crazy enough to try to catch him.
Cavanaugh was still gaping, even though he'd known what Kokabiel was and that he was after me. But I guessed knowing and seeing were two different things, and Kokabiel had been pouring on the divine charm pretty hard. Maybe we ought to drag Dandridge outside and let him see for himself what he was up against.
I opened my pack, pulling out the smaller of the two water pistols I'd bought. One held a lot of water, but it was too cumbersome to use as a concealed weapon. The other looked like a classic squirt gun and snuggled in nicely at the small of my back. My knuckledusters were still in their sheath, the tasers and Zappers in the pack, and our basic survival and/or spy gear strapped down and buttoned up for convenient grabbing when we needed them.
Libby was already loaded and ready to go. "What's our exit strategy?"
"Cavanaugh, is there a secret underground garage to this place?"
He stared at me as if I'd gone mad. "It's a church."
"A church that keeps an eye on demons, so I don't think it's that farfetched a question."
"No secret exits."
"Lib, can you think of a way out of here that doesn't involve a fight?"
She considered it. "Surrender and let him take us back to the lab."
"Any good ideas?"
"Not at this time."
Cavanaugh stepped between us, his hands outstretched. "Wait, what are you doing?"
"Do we have anything that'll work like grenades?" I asked Libby.
"Water balloons."
"Perfect."
She tossed me a packet of balloons, but Cavanaugh snatched it out of the air before it reached me. "You can't fight something like that. You know what he is."
"Pretty tired of waiting for my sorry ass, I'd gather."
"But--"
I took his face in my hands and held his gaze. "Keep it together, Cavanaugh. You know what he is. He's the same evil bastard who kidnapped Anita Rosenberg. Remember her?"
"Yes, of course." He wiped a shaking hand across his face and nodded. "No, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking."
"Wasn't your fault, he worked his mojo on you. He does that." I plucked the bag of balloons out of his hand. "I know we don't have the security footage, but why don't you try to narrow down the search area anyway."
"To find the lair?"
"To find the lair." I guided him to his chair and nudged him down in front of his computer. "Our source said hikers keep going missing around Boynton Canyon, but later they show up miles away with foggy memories."
"If the police were involved, there should be something about it online."
I smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "I was hoping you'd say that. Find out how far back the news articles go."
"I can do that." He shifted his focus to the computer and I went back to Libby.
"That ought to keep him distracted," she whispered.
Hopefully. "You come up with anything brilliant yet?"
"I've had three minutes."
"Slacker." I peeked through the blinds and across the parking lot. Kokabiel hadn't moved, and neither had-- "The van."
"What about it?"
"Do we still have the tracker we were going to put on the Helgarson's car?"
"It's in your pack. Front pocket."
"You think you can make it out there unseen if I distract Kokabiel?"
She parted the blinds and studied the street. "If we wait and hope it starts raining or snowing, and there's no one in the front seat looking out the windows, and I can slip out an exit they're not watching...maybe."
"Fifty-fifty chance?"
"Thirty-seventy. Less if he's got decent backup."
Lousy odds. "You'd be on holy ground most of the way." The van was parked right at the edge of the street, with only a strip of sidewalk between it and the church. Could be public ground, could be church property. We wouldn't know for sure unless a Pretty Boy stepped onto it.
She pursed her lips and considered it. "I've got the pistols for the gray areas in between. It's a long shot, but we can't sit here all day."
I didn't know who was crazier, her or me.
"If I get you killed, I'm sorry," I said in all seriousness.
"You'd better be or I'm haunting your ass."
I'd expect nothing less, but if I said that, I'd start crying, then she'd start crying, and that was no way to launch a battle against beings cast out of Heaven.
"Four years," Cavanaugh called out.
We turned, letting the blinds fall back into place. "What?"
"Hikers have been getting lost and confused around that area for the last four years."
That fit the timeline.
"No deaths, though," he said. "Which is odd.
"
"None?" Common human idiocy should have caused one or two in that many years.
"Nothing but the relocated tourists."
I left the window and joined him behind his desk. "What about the year prior?" Kokabiel had gone from killing to kidnapping in the last five years.
"Give me a moment, please."
He searched, fingers tapping quickly over the keys. "Two people disappeared about five years ago while hiking the Boynton Canyon Trail. Their bodies were found a week later at the edge of the Palatki Heritage Site."
"How close are those two areas?"
"Close enough not to raise eyebrows, but it's unlikely hikers would get lost and wind up there by accident."
Libby tipped her head at me. "What is it?"
"Maybe nothing. Maybe a lead." Two dead hikers was hardly out of the ordinary, unless... "Was there an extensive search for them? Something that brought a lot of unwanted attention to that area?" Something made him change his tactics from kill to brainwash and transport.
"Ah..." His fingers flew across the keys again. "Yes. One of the hikers was a congresswoman's son. He and his girlfriend came here on spring break. They also lost four people during the search, all professional search and rescue."
"Sounds like the S&R teams got too close for Kokabiel's comfort," Libby said.
"He messed up." I grinned. We had him. "He saw hikers too close to his lair, so he killed them. But he had no clue they were important and brought down more attention on himself. He must have realized moving trespassers out of the area before anyone noticed they were gone was safer."
Was that what Dandridge had uncovered?
"And if anyone did notice, the facts were too weird to be taken seriously or lead back to him. Anyone who spoke to them would think the hikers were somewhere else, no matter what they said."
Evil and smart was a bad combination. I turned back to Cavanaugh. "What's in that area?"
He shook his head slowly. "Not a lot. Miles of hiking trails, dense forest, mountains. The farther one gets from the trails the wilder it becomes."
I glanced at Libby and she nodded. "That's where I'd hide my secret lair," she said.
Me, too. Hidden in the mountains, shielded by dense forests, and a popular tourist vacation spot with a transient population. It was perfect for all manner of unspeakable machinations.
"We need to see what's up there."
"We need to get out of here first."
"Only if we can get the odds up to--" I jumped as a knock rattled the door.
"Dandridge?" Libby crossed the room and opened it, one hand on her pistol.
Something popped, like the muffled sound of a car backfiring. Libby cried out and flew backward, the front of her shirt ripped and frayed. A black-haired woman stood in the doorway, holding a gun.
Chapter Twenty
"Libby!" I dived for her. This wasn't happening. We were in a church! We were supposed to be safe. She stared at nothing, but a single tear slid from the corner of one eye toward her temple.
"No, please no!" I couldn't lose the only friend I'd ever had.
"Grab her," said the woman who'd shot Libby. A diamond in her nose glinted. We'd seen her before, polishing the pews and wishing us a good day.
Fury roared in my ears, sharpened my focus. She'd pay for this. I yanked the steel baton off Libby's belt and flicked it open. "Call 9-1-1," I told Cavanaugh as I lunged.
"Grace, no!"
The woman leveled the gun at me, but she wouldn't dare shoot. My blood was too precious to spill.
A man almost as big as the doorway entered and came right at me. I swung the baton at his head with everything I had. He blocked it with an arm the size of my thigh and painful shockwaves raced to my shoulder.
I dropped to the floor and spun, slamming him behind the knees with the baton. The mountain rumbled. He felt that hit. His giant body swayed off balance.
Fall, you son of a--
SMACK!
Pain flared across the side of my head and I was spinning. A woman's laughter rose and fell as my vision blurred and the corners of my world darkened. Glass shattered, Cavanaugh cried out, but I couldn't focus enough to see.
Hang on, Grace-face, keep it together.
Libby groaned and the world snapped back into place. I crawled toward her. She was strong. Tough. She had to be okay.
"Lib! Stay with me!"
Mountain Man yanked me up by my hair and I yelped. Pain burst across my scalp. He dragged me out the door, but it didn't matter. Libby was still alive. Cavanaugh would call an ambulance and get her to a hospital.
The woman stepped in beside me and shoved the gun into my ribs. Her face and skin said mid-forties, but everything else about her fought hard to appear young. Heavy black eyeliner. Lace-trimmed black shirt, combat boots. A little old for the Goth look.
"Not everyone looks good with a nose stud," I said. "No shame in admitting that, especially at your age."
"Shut up."
Our fight hadn't lasted long, but it must have been noisy and the gunshot had to have been heard by--wait, the shot had been muffled. I'd hardly heard it myself.
I looked down at the gun in my side, the barrel longer and thicker than it ought to be. A silencer. That bitch brought a silencer and a throwback to Neanderthal times. Kokabiel outfitted his minions well. Soon as I got my hands on him I'd rip the green stuffing right out of him.
"Hurry," she said, taking the lead. Mountain Man dragged me along beside him, one fist still wrapped in my hair and keeping me bent back and off balance. His other hand crushed my wrist. He hauled me through the door and out into the parking lot.
"You know what you work for, right?" I said over the wind whipping by. The air hung heavy and thick around us, ready to dump the snow it had been hoarding all morning. Dark clouds blocked the sun.
"You know nothing."
"I know your bosses can't walk on holy ground without bursting into flames. Nothing good self-combusts on holy ground."
Aging Goth paused a few paces from our rental car and scanned the lot. "I can overlook a lot for immortality," she said, picking a new direction to drag me.
"You think he can give you that? He's lying."
"You'd say anything to save your own skin."
"I'm telling you the truth. He's not a vampire. If he promised you youth and beauty forever, it's a lie."
"Grace!" Cavanaugh shouted.
Aging Goth spun and fired. Cavanaugh hit the deck in front of the front doors, flinging his arms over his head. I held my breath until I saw him move, scrambling crablike out of the line of fire.
"You missed," I said. Why hadn't he stayed with Libby? Where was the ambulance?
She glared at me. "I will shoot you."
"Not if you want to live forever."
"You--"
"She's baiting you," Mountain Man rumbled. "Ignore her and let's get out of here."
I tasted the sweetness of woodfire smoke and burnt marshmallows in the air. "Can I say something first?"
She rolled her black-lined eyes. "What?"
"Daniel!" I screamed, loud as I could. "Help--" Mountain Man cuffed me in the side of the head hard enough to make my ears ring.
Ozone washed over me with the next breeze. I stiffened and braced myself.
A dark shape blurred past. Mountain Man jerked. His fingers spasmed, loosening their grip on my hair. He sank to the ground with a groan.
Aging Goth gasped and swung her gun around. I dived out of the way the instant I'd felt those fingers let go. She fired wildly. Daniel blurred into focus directly in front of the muzzle. The bullets tore his shirt, but dropped harmlessly to the ground.
She whimpered. I rolled to my feet and punched her in the face.
"That's for Libby," I said as she crumpled.
Surrounded in a halo of smoke, Daniel hissed in a pained gasp. Sparks raced across his skin, a rough reminder he was standing on holy ground.
I grabbed his hand and the sparks vanished. "They shot Libby! W
e have to get back inside."
He took a few deep breaths and his face unclenched. "I'll deal with the dominions. You go."
An inhuman roar mingled with the rolling thunder. Kokabiel paced at the edge of the church's parking lot, his hands clenched at his sides, his angry-yet-hungry gaze locked on me.
Images of rushing water and screaming women flooded my mind again--
--Water pours over the houses and the fields as the women run, the giants behind them. One woman stumbles and a giant grabs her and holds her high. She smiles at him, clinging to him as if for protection. The water gets deeper, and he holds her higher and higher as the water swirls around him, engulfs him--
I gasped, desperate for breath, drowning in water that wasn't real. The weight of it pushed me to my knees.
"Grace?" Daniel dropped with me, taking my other hand in his. Kokabiel roared again. "What's wrong?"
"Another memory." I shivered in the rain and waters that were all in my head. "Women running from a flood. Maybe a dozen women and they're terrified, screaming, and giants are chasing them, with floodwaters right behind them. It looks like the giants are after the women, but I think they're trying to save them. They held them above the water."
"They were."
"Were?" I felt it, their fear and anger. Someone had betrayed them and that hurt worse than the drowning. They were confused, filled with so much regret. But...there was love, too. "Whose memory was that?"
Daniel's gaze shifted over my shoulder to Kokabiel. "Mine. His. Ours. We all remember."
I didn't understand. "Were you the giants?"
"They were our children. They never should have been born, but we loved their mothers and they wanted them."
I shifted, uncomfortable. "Did you...?"
"Break my vow and dishonor my Creator? Yes. I suffered the same punishment as the others." He swallowed, so much pain on his face. "Go to your friend. You shouldn't be out here."
An engine revved and the white van jerked to a stop behind Kokabiel. He smiled at me.
"Grace, come to me."
I gripped Daniel's hand tighter as the traitorous need to do as he asked pulled at me. Daniel held tight, my rock against the waves.